Ditching cigarettes for smokeless tobacco can help cut cardiovascular risks, study finds

Regular smokers are at heightened risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but crushing the butts in favor of a “smokeless” alternative like chewing tobacco, snuff or tobacco lozenges may go a long way toward bringing the danger down to a more normal level, a new UCLA-led study shows.The findings also indicate that the primary culprit in smokers ’ increased risk is not nicotine but other chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products contain large quantities of nicotine.The study,published today in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, involved a team of researchers from UCLA, UC San Francisco, Boston University and the University of Texas at Arlington.The researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative group of 4,347 adults who provided urine and blood samples in 2013 –14 as part of thePopulation Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. Among this group, 338 used only smokeless tobacco, 3,034 smoked cigarettes exclusively and 975 had never used tobacco in any form.The team looked specifically at biomarkers of tobacco exposure and biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress, which predict cardiovascular disease risk, in each of the three subgroups.“Our findings show that despite having higher levels of nicotine, exclusive smokeless tobacco users had significantly lower concentrations of inflammation and oxidative stress biomarkers than cigarette smokers,” said lead author Mary Rezk-Hanna, an assistant prof...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news